In the Beginning
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Creation
Creation
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
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1 So the heavens and the earth and everything in them were completed. 2 On the seventh day God had completed his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, for on it he rested from all his work of creation.
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God created everything that exists. Everything! Everything owes its existence to God, including us. We owe every breath we breath, every thought we think, every word we say to God. He gave us life. He brought us into existence. He formed our soul and formed our bodies and joined them together. So let me ask you, are you thankful that you exist? Are you thankful that God created your soul, placed it in your body, and brought you into existence? He gave you life. How thankful are you? Are you thankful for your spouse? Do you show it? Do you show him or her? Are you thankful for your children? Do you show them? Are you thankful for your friends, for a roof over your head, for food and water? Do you show it? Are you thankful that God created your soul and gave you life? Do you show Him? God is the creator of all things, but his pinnacle of creation in those first six days was humanity.
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.”
27 So God created man in his own image;
he created him in the image of God;
he created them male and female.
28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.” 29 God also said, “Look, I have given you every seed-bearing plant on the surface of the entire earth and every tree whose fruit contains seed. This will be food for you, 30 for all the wildlife of the earth, for every bird of the sky, and for every creature that crawls on the earth—everything having the breath of life in it—I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good indeed. Evening came and then morning: the sixth day.
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He created a creature in his own image that was given the task of bearing that image to the rest of his creation, and after God created humanity He looked at His creation and this time instead of saying that it was good, He said that it was very good indeed. They were to care for the garden like He would. They were to care for the animals like He would. They were to care for each other like he would. They were the image bearers of God and they were given the amazing blessing of living like God to a degree that no other animal can. If you want to get down to it, are you thankful that God made you a human and not a opossum.
[pic of opossum]
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Have you ever woken up in bed in the morning and looked up to God before you got out of bed and said to God, Father I want to thank you so much that you did not make me a opossum, but that instead you made me in Your own image, a creature that can think, and create, and imagine, and dream about the future, and love, and care for and steward your creation.
So Gen 1 gives us the overall creation account, highlighting the fact that people are made in God’s image. Gen 2 gives us a more detailed account of the creation of Adam and Eve.
20 The man gave names to all the livestock, to the birds of the sky, and to every wild animal; but for the man no helper was found corresponding to him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to come over the man, and he slept. God took one of his ribs and closed the flesh at that place. 22 Then the Lord God made the rib he had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 And the man said:
This one, at last, is bone of my bone
and flesh of my flesh;
this one will be called “woman,”
for she was taken from man.
24 This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh.
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Now I want you to notice something very important here. God created Man and every animal, and every animal’s companion from the ground, but not Eve. Eve was the only land creature that was not made from the ground, she was made from Adam. Adam and Eve were not just made from the same clay who resembled each other, Eve was made from Adam himself. They were not just alike, they were one. Eve did not just complement Adam. Eve was not just “like” Adam. Eve was “of” Adam. You take that along with Gn 1.27 which says:
27 So God created man in his own image;
he created him in the image of God;
he created them male and female.
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and what you see is that Eve was not just another creature that God decided to make just to help Adam and make his life easier. Eve was of equal value and dignity and worth as Adam. If you look at verse 27, your natural tendency is to read this verse thinking that man here is just Adam, but if you do, it’s going to get confusing. God created Adam in his own image. He created Adam in the image of God. He created them male and female. But that’s not what the verse is saying. In English, we have man, woman, and human. In this verse it’s better to understand man here as human, or mankind. The Hebrew word for man here is adam, literally Adam.
1 This is the document containing the family records of Adam. On the day that God created man, he made him in the likeness of God; 2 he created them male and female. When they were created, he blessed them and called them mankind.
3 Adam was 130 years old when he fathered a son in his likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth. 4 Adam lived 800 years after he fathered Seth, and he fathered other sons and daughters.
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Back to my point. Man and Woman are both made in the image of God, that’s why God kept adding that line in every time He talked about Adam, (man) being made in His image.
27 So God created man in his own image;
he created him in the image of God;
he created them male and female.
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1 This is the document containing the family records of Adam. On the day that God created man, he made him in the likeness of God; 2 he created them male and female. When they were created, he blessed them and called them mankind.
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From the very first pages of God’s Holy Scriptures, unlike any other society or religious group in ancient and modern history, women are created different from but equal to men. Both are made in God’s image and have the same inherent dignity and worth. And then comes the fall.
Fall
Fall
1 Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”
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Satan’s approach has been from the very beginning to question, distort, and oppose God’s word. The very first four words that we ever here come out of his mouth were “Did God really say?” And He still uses that same line with us today. Did God really say? He twisted God’s words with Adam and Eve and then outright opposed them when he told them that they would not die like God told them they would.
It’s important to note that when Satan tried to tempt Jesus, he again tried to distort God’s word to do so.
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city, had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written:
He will give his angels orders concerning you,
and they will support you with their hands
so that you will not strike
your foot against a stone.”
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But unlike Adam and Eve, Jesus did not give into Satan’s temptations. Jesus correctly quoted what God really said.
7 Jesus told him, “It is also written: Do not test the Lord your God.”
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Three times Satan tested Jesus, and three times Jesus did not give into those temptations, and all three times He quoted scripture. The Psalmist said
11 I have treasured your word in my heart
so that I may not sin against you.
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Jesus fulfilled the law where we have not. Sin entered the world through Adam and Eve and we have all fallen victim to it and need to be saved because we can not save ourselves.
23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
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12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all people, because all sinned.
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20 But as it is, Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also comes through a man. 22 For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
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Gospel presentation
Next week Noah and Job